Sounds simple enough: DART has long wanted to make more money by selling ads on its bus shelters … pardon, “Identify incremental revenue stream through Bus Shelter advertising in the cities DART serves.” Which sounds simple, no? Fun too based on those quirky, clever offerings. Except … no, unh-unh, not s’much.

Per the briefing there are several “hurdles to clear,” among them having to share some of the dough with the Texas Department of Transportation, letting TxDOT know what’s up lest it “negatively affect our future ability to locate shelters on TxDOT right-of-way” and dealing with code issues in the various cities in which DART’s espying the roll-out.

First up’s Irving, home to 36 bus shelters, and DART’s baby-stepping toward the surely inevitable. Maybe, says the proposal, it’ll let would-be advertisers just, ya know, partner up on the shelter with, like, a donation, let’s say, that goes toward the upkeep of the bus stop. Or maybe DART could go with a “a less overt advertiser,” like, oh, a hospital. Or perhaps it just goes all-out? Hard to say. It’s all very TBD at present.

Also back on the to-do list: selling the naming rights to stations, which has been around as long as the bus-shelter proposal and got back-burnered because of policy questions and concerns over confusing riders by rebranding stops for advertisers. Today’s briefing docs, which are also below, reveal DART’s close to pulling into that station: On October 9 the revenue committee is scheduled to sign off on a vendor to oversee how such a money-maker might be implemented.